Only 12 cars were produced by Cinema Vehicle Services to be used on the 2000 remake of Gone in 60 Seconds and reportedly only 7 remain after 5 were totalled during filming though it seems every year one or two come up for auction. This time it’s the guys over at Mecum Auto Auctions who have a nice example set to go under the hammer this May.

This particular example appears to be one of only three ‘hero’ cars used during filming. These hero cars were used for closeups, promotional shoots and actor dialogue scenes.

“Eleanor has become one of the most widely recognized movie star muscle cars in the world, so when the decision was made to offer the ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’ Hero car for sale, Mecum’s Spring Classic auction in Indianapolis seemed like the perfect venue,” commented Ray Claridge, owner of Cinema Vehicle Services.

The car is expected to roll across the block on Saturday May 18. Thirty-two hours of the Indianapolis auction will be broadcast live on Discovery’s Velocity Network with the entire auction streaming live on Mecum’s website at www.mecum.com. Gates open at 8 a.m. each day and general admission can be purchased at the door for $20 per person; children 12 and younger will be admitted at no cost. For more information on the auction or to register as a bidder, visit www.mecum.com or call (262) 275-5050.

Back in 2008 this very rare one off car popped up on eBay, reported here. after that we’re not too sure what happened to the vehicle, though given the $3 Million price tag we can assume it may not have sold. Fast forward a handful of years and the car is back. This time set to cross the auction block at Mecum’s 26th Original Spring Classic Auction in Indianapolis.

Shelby originally wanted to build 50 Super Snakes which would be sold exclusively through Shelby dealerships as an alternative to the 427-powered Camaros and Chevelles and 426 MoPars which were in a league above the standard Shelbys.

However when all the costs were added up the sticker price came to a whopping $7500, which in those days was quite a substantial amount of money, so the whole project was shelved and the car was eventually bought by two airline pilots who dragged raced it on weekends. Two subsequent owners remain unidentified today, but records show that the car was purchased in 1970 by Bobby Pierce of Benbrock, TX, who cared for it for 25 years before selling it to David Loebenberg of Florida.

The Super Snake returned to California 7 years later when it was bought by Charles Lillard, who later sold it to Richard Ellis, a collector of rare Mustangs in Illinois, at which point the car registered 26,000 miles on the odometer and showed almost no deterioration.

Ellis proceeded with what he describes as a “light restoration”, locating the correct wires and hoses for the engine compartment, a period-correct Rotunda fire extinguisher, NOS Shelby 10-spoke wheels and, amazingly, four brand-new Thunderbolt whitewall tires in the proper size. As Ellis explained in a September, 2011 interview with Auto Enthusiast Magazine, “I wanted to own this piece of Shelby history worse than anything. It was well cared for by its previous owners, but I’ve put a lot of effort into returning it to the state it was in on the day of the tire test.”

“The Thunderbolts were made for … well, boring family cars in the ’60s, which is why nobody reproduces them or has even heard of them for 35 years. I found what has to be the only surviving set in a warehouse in Akron, Ohio. I’m sure Shelby pulled the original Thunderbolts and threw them away when the car got back to California.

“Now, when you see a picture of the Super Snake and it’s got skinny whitewall tires, you’ll know it is either from the Goodyear test or from the time it’s spent in my collection.”

Built with the heart of a Le Mans champion yet ultimately destined for but one day in the sun, there is only one Super Snake, the result of a confluence of forces that could only have happened in the charmed life of one Carroll Shelby.

The car is scheduled to cross the block May 17 at approximetly 5:30pm.

We’ve previously shared some of the best photos we’ve ever seen of an Eleanor creation and still to this day we have not encountered a better example of a movie correct Eleanor Mustang. This week Dave got back in touch with us to share some new photos, a couple of videos and a funny story about a run in with law enforcement.

Dave’s story is an inspiring one. It shows with a lot of hard work a movie correct car is possible. Though for those who don’t have an Eleanor or are going down a different restoration path we can still marvel at these pictures. One you may notice taken from a boom attached to the car shows a law enforcement vehicle blocking Eleanor’s path. When we spoke to Dave he jokingly shared the story with us.

Some lady drove by us with the camera rig on the car and assumed we were “up to no good”. Naturally the car being the attention whore that it was it turned into the cops taking pictures of it, haha. They loved the fact that I run the California black plate (the car is registered in NY to the tag LYN 274)

We’re told next month there is a professional video to be released. If the quality of the photos are anything to go off then we’re in for a real treat.

If you want to build a car similar or just want to see the detail Dave has gone to you can check out his build thread HERE. It is a must for any Eleanor builder.

This is probably the coolest barn find story we’ve ever come across. A genuine 1967 Shelby GT350 that, instead of being restored from the ground up, has not been touched cosmetically. However all the insides, running gear and everything you cannot see have been replaced with new parts to ensure she runs and drives perfectly. The result? A beautiful period car, that is brand new underneath. A car that can lay claim to the old Ricky-racers of times past.

The project can best be described by the guys at Classic Motorsport.

The continuous needling—along with a few beers—led us to form a half-assed plan: How about we leave the outside just the way it is? Some may call it rust and grime, others may call it patina, but we’ll completely fix all the mechanics underneath it and make the car safe and fun to drive.

Everyone at the office loved that idea, and after a few more beers we somehow decided we’d try to get the necessary work done in six weeks. Then, we’d take the newly resurrected Shelby—instead of our Tiger project car—on this year’s Going To The Sun Rally in Montana.

What could possibly go wrong? It’s just a complete chassis restoration on a nearly 50-year-old car that we’ve only owned for a week and driven a total of 8 miles.

Dubbed the ‘Terlingua Terror’ as a tribute to Jerry Titus’s Trans-Am winning Shelby notchback as well as a nod to the fact that the Texas 1000 rally route often includes the Terlingua area of Texas, the car had every mechanical part under the hood and on the chassis restored or replaced with an new one from NPD. The car wasn’t originally fitted with a limited-slip differential so the guys added one in as well as removing the non-original 289 engine and replacing it with a Ford Racing 500 horsepower, 363 cubic-inch engine.

Vintage vinyl graphics were added to the car to increase that ‘used’ look which in our opinion makes the car. The concept of having an ‘original’ untouched car cosmetically has never even occurred to us here. But it has now genuinely thrown a spanner in the works. Anyone have a cheap barn find we can buy?

Mustang Monthly have a great in-depth write up about it by the owner of the car, Tim Suddard. And also check out Classic Motorsports project page which details every step of the project from start to finish. We’ve literally been reading these four hours!

In 1968 Shelby needed a way to test various concepts and parts for their upcoming production vehicles. For this a prototype car was created better known these days as the Green Hornet.

The car began life as a Lime Gold ’68 hardtop with matching Deluxe interior. Its VIN was 8F01S104288 and was fitted with a 390 V8 engine coupled to a C6 automatic transmission.

At the time the cars performance was immense registering 0-60 times in the 5.7 second range and top speeds of 157 mph. Though for unknown reasons the car and its features never made it to production and from there it was thought the car was crushed. Not so explains Jeff Koch of Hemmings.

“Rather than being scrapped, it was sent to Ford’s Employee and Auction Resale Lot in Dearborn. By the time it was in the yard, it was just an old Mustang: The special independent rear had been stolen and replaced with a bog-standard Fairlane axle, and the Conelec EFI had similarly been swiped and replaced with a police interceptor intake and four-barrel carb.

The yard supervisor, Robert Zdanowski, bought it for $3,000 as a family car–he knew that it was the only Shelby notchback of its kind–but he sold it six months later when, as he wrote in a letter, “the Green Hornet proved to have too much power to be a ‘safe’ family car. (On rainy days, the rear end would slide off the asphalt roads near our home.)”

Zdanowski then sold the car on to Don Darrow and his son Randy, who held onto the car for over two decades not realising what they had until they saw it in a book and after contacting the author they confirmed they indeed had a special car.

From here they managed to inform Frank Goodell who, as you can imagine, was over the moon it was still around. Fast forward a handful more years and Martin Euler of Classic & Muscle Mustang Restorations had managed to restore the car ground up with help from Goodell and we are left with what we have today. A great piece of Mustang and Shelby automotive history.

Hemmings have a great in-depth write up of the history of the car. Head over there and give it a read.

The car will go under the hammer in January of 2013 at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction.

Owner’s View
On rainy days, the rear end would slide off the asphalt roads near our home.–Fred Goodell

PROS
+ Documented Shelby prototype
+ Groundbreaking ideas still not used
+ Virtually impossible to even clone one

CONS
– Not actually drivable at press time
– Would you take the chance if it was?
– Virtually impossible to even clone one

Production
This Shelby Mustang was a prototype unit for component testing and was not sold through regular dealer channels. It is the only one in existence.
Performance
0-60 mph: 5.7 seconds
0-100 mph: 11.4 seconds
Top speed: 157 mph

It seems the team over at Classic Recreations have been busy lately. This coming week we have it on good authority they will be revealing their latest model to be added to the CR stable. The GT500CR Convertible.

MSN Autos recently named the 1967 Shelby G.T.500 the “ultimate muscle car.” The Shelby G.T.500CR-900S model starts with a legend, and injects it with modern supercar technology: a 770 horsepower supercharged engine, advanced multi-link race car inspired suspension, an opulent interior and modern turn-key reliability. It’s the newest car to come from Classic Recreations and it’s a monster.

Something I promised myself when I began my Eleanor project that was I would try my hardest to have the car look as close as possible to the movie car. I’m still a long way off yet as you all know but it’s really exciting when you come across another project that has gone down the same route. That’s just what Dave has done.

There’s lots of chatter this week around Classic Recreations and the fact that they may be introducing a Shelby G.T.350CR to the market to sit along side their popular G.T.500CR models. This would make sense given the success of their current models so after a bit of digging I can quite confidently confirm that Classic Recreations will be introducing a G.T350 model.

We’ve all seen die cast Mustangs on the market, I’ve even got myself a funny looking GT500 look-a-like. But I’ve always thought it would be cool to have one sitting in the study that looked as mean as the car that I was building. Thankfully there’s one on its way, and it’s the familiar Shelby GT500CR from Classic Recreations.